Dive Brief:

• The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded grants for projects to reduce landfill waste and eliminate unsightly dump sites.

• A $127,324 grant will purchase equipment for the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center so it can continue to collect and clean glass as it switches to single-stream recycling. The new equipment – properly cleans recycled glass — eliminating the need to trash the glass of collect it separately. All of which could produce higher recycling rates. 

• A second grant of $5,455 will purchase four high-tech cameras and five standard trail cameras to be placed on rural public lands in both Athens and Hocking counties to capture illegal dumping. 

Dive Insight:

These two projects show a commitment to solving problems at their source.

Bars produce a lot of glass waste. Bars that are recycling will get more bins and better signs, and bars that aren't recycling will get materials so they can start.

Erin Sykes, director of Rural Action"s Zero Waste program, said, "Currently 40,000 pounds of glass are collected uptown. We hope this grant will enable us to collect 20,000 more pounds per month. We hope that switching to single stream will increase glass recycling in other places by 10,000 pounds a month."